


(cause i got a) peaceful, easy feeling

by papurosaurusrexx



Category: One Direction (Band), Zayn Malik (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, F/F, Fluff, Girl Direction, Light Angst, YOLO, and Briana is there along with Freddie but I feel weird about putting them as characters oops, barely i guess, i think thats it soz, is this only for coffeshop aus or for all aus mostly set in coffeeshops?, its not romantic tho, oh and the ziam is v little imo, oh theyre all cisgirls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2016-11-07
Packaged: 2018-08-29 19:02:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8501671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/papurosaurusrexx/pseuds/papurosaurusrexx
Summary: Louis and Zayn are totally-(not)-kickass Aurors, Niall and Harry own a coffeeshop in Diagon Alley where the coffees and teas are mood-lifting, and Liam makes their tea blends in her greenhouse with her dog. They all get together when a client ends up in St. Mungo's and the Aurors are sent to investigate, but stay together when they sit down to talk over coffee and tea.





	1. Main lil' fic

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darlingjustdont](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingjustdont/gifts).



> A suuuper late bday fic for Sasha. Soz abt the slow writing, but it's here tho! Better late than never?! Yay to posting things! Also thanks to Adri for reading this over and actually being the sounding board for this fic way back in like March, I think? Which is probs why I feel a bit meh about this story but wtv yolo ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Anyway, title is from Peaceful Easy Feeling by the Eagles because I thought that making a gr9 narry pandora station would help me write the fic faster. (Spoiler alert: it didn't, but at least it gave me a title better than "Untitled-Happy Coffee Narry")
> 
> Purely fictional, I obviously don't own 1d or their (past) members, don't show it to the ppl mentioned here, etc. Yall should know how it is.

Niall took a deep breath as she went down the stairs. She loved her job, but today happened to be one of those days where she didn't want to leave her bed to deal with grumpy customers who needed something to drink some caffeine before properly starting their day.

She opened the door, the sound of the soft guitar and drums hitting her as she walked into her shop.

She smiled, walking through the inventories and finding the cause today's choice of music.

"You are such a sap," she murmured, leaning against Harry and laying a kiss on her shoulder.

Harry smiled, pressing a quick kiss on her forehead as she busied herself in preparing two cups of tea and waving her wand to send it off to their corresponding table.

"I love this song. And I know you love this song," added Harry, smile widening.  

"I know. And I love that you love it."

Niall leaned against the countertops, looking at her girlfriend.

She was wearing a red, floral tunic today with possibly the tightest pair of pants she owned. Her hair was up in a bun with flecks of hair falling out, and it all played so well with the fading tan from their weekend in Greece. What had she even done to deserve this woman?

"And I love Fleetwood Mac and I love you even more for introducing me to their music," said Harry, stepping closer and sliding a hand over her hip.

"Such a sap."

"Love's in the air, I guess.” Harry shrugged, looking over her shoulder. “That couple over there are on a breakfast date. The girl ordered a calming tea so I'm guessing she might tell him she loves him or something like that. Like, Niall! What a way to start the day!” Harry turned around to dramatically fall over Niall. “Niall, tell me you love me again.”

She giggled, scrunching up her nose a little.

"I don't know. That sounds a bit gay, don’t you think?"

Harry bit her lower lip as she smiled and raised her eyebrows.

"That didn't seem bother you this morning."

"That was an accident."

“ _All_ of it?”

“All of it.”

"We've been girlfriends for eight years today."

She felt her smile grow wider. "Ah, you got me there."

Honestly, this would've had been the perfect moment for another morning kiss, if only the bell above their door hadn’t rang alongside the roar of the fireplace.

It would have to wait until the morning rush was over and everyone had left for work. They'd been dating for eight years now, spent even more as best friends. And they still had time ahead of them.

She snapped back from her thoughts at the clattering of a cup and a gasp. She looked as the bloke by the window placed his head between hands, breathing heavily.

“I’ll get St. Mungo’s close in case the idiot’s just overdosed on caffeine.”

“They’re probably just breaking up or something,” said Harry, focusing on making another latte. “Anyway, if he was overdosing, don’t we have those potions just in case?”

“No, they took those away during the last inspection, remember?” she answered. She looked up, finding the pink-haired girlfriend facing them. “Yes?”

“Just to make sure, the tea he’d been drinking had no parsley? He’s allergic to parsley.”

“Allergic to parsley?” repeated Harry, looking at Niall.

“Means his body reacts negatively to parsley.”

“I know what that means. But he’s allergic to parsley?” asked Harry, turning towards her.

“Yes?”

“Is it only parsley?”

“Yes, I’m pretty sure it’s only parsley, but can we please focus on the fact that one of your customers is suddenly sick?”

“None of our teas have parsley on them.” said Niall, feeling her body snap back into action as she reached for her wand. “But let’s do this, okay? Let’s contact St. Mungo’s because- Is he?”

The pink-haired girl turned around. “Fuck.”

Niall tapped her wand on her thigh, thinking of her early morning to send her patronus.

"Yah, s'Happy Hour? The coffeeshop on Diagon Alley? We’ve got a customer kind of convulsing right now? Well, not kind of- Just send help, please."

* * *

 

Lou hurried out of the room, hoping her socked feet would muffle the sounds of her steps, and sneezed.

She waited, groaning as a soft cry came from inside her bedroom.

She picked up Freddie from her bed, shuffling a little in a weak attempt to calm him.

"Was hoping you'd keep sleeping after I sneezed. Thought you’d let your mummy sleep a little more, but she’s got supersonic hearing that will wake her up soon and you're so fussy lately, aren't you?" Louis sighed, scrunching up her runny nose and cursing the damned month of April mentally. "Let's go get that allergies potion, 'right, Frederick?"

She ran one of her hands by the sink then tentatively ran her thumb over the child's gums. After a bit of fussing, he calmed down.

Lou took a deep breath, opening the cupboards with her one of her legs.

In the mere seconds where she had to remove her hand to grab her potion, Freddie started fussing again, crying softly.

She refrained from cursing under her breath, even when the other door in her flat opened and showed a sleepy best friend.

"Give him to me," said Briana. Lou did so, drinking from the small bottle. "Don't know what's going on with him lately."

"I think he's teething," she said, relief flooding through her as the potion quickly started doing its work.

She watched Briana mimic Lou's previous actions, smiling when he calms down.

"He's only ten months old."

"Some kids start early?" Louis shrugged, sipping the last drops from her bottle. "Maybe it's a boy thing, I don't know. I only got sisters."

"And I'm an only child, so such lucky stars we have around here, really," she said.

Louis smiled, looking at her tired complexion. "Wanted to let him let you sleep a bit more this morning."

Briana shrugged. "Did you open the window last night then?"

"Yeah, got an owl and forgot to close it," she said. "April can kindly eff off."

“Language.”

“Yes, because he’s going to know what I mean by eff off.”

Briana rolled her eyes. “Take your tea, Lou.”

She sighed at the sound of the beeping inside her room.

Mondays mornings were definitively not for her.

She searched inside her bag, wondering why she’d thought it would be a good idea to just throw that stupid cellphone-wannabe thing inside her stupid bag when it was such a stupid mess.

Briana found her charming her boots so they'd lace themselves, rolling her eyes at her as she quickly grabbed her bag and the loose paperwork around the room. Shit. She should really clean her room or she'd one day die in a pile of rubbish and no one would find her for days, just like her mother always told her. What had she even thought of bringing little Freddie inside her room- Focus.

Right.

"I've got a message and I've got to run to the office. Developing case and all that. Probably won’t be as important seeing is they only sent it to me and Zayn, but yeah."

Briana nodded, walking back towards the kitchen. "Well, I'm sure we could give poor Zayn a bit of the coffee I started making. Wouldn't want to have your head chopped off so early.”

"You know us so well," she said, making sure her short hair was as messy as her entire life was, just the way she liked it. Her hair. Not her life. She should probably do something about the latter. Maybe she could start by focusing on the task in hand, she thought as she picked up her bag.

“I’ll pop by one of those Muggle shops after work and see if there’s something for Frederick and his possible teething!”

“Stop calling him Frederick! You’ll give him an identity crisis so early on!”

Louis laughed as she left her room, giving the kid a kiss and ruffling her best friend’s hair, much to her dismay.

Several minutes later, she stepped into the the Auror's office with two self-warming mugs in hand and a bag slipping off her shoulder.

She sighed, leaving one of the mugs on the desk beside hers.

"Please tell me this is coffee," said Zayn, raising her head.

"Yes, but it's decaf."

"Fuck’s sake-"

"Two sugars, only a drop of milk. And it’s not that instant coffee you wanted to throw out last time you came over either. It’s like proper coffee. I think. Bri made it. Love you, please don’t kill me."

"Let the record show that I love Bri with all my heart." She laughed as Louis dragged her chair beside her and laid her head on Zayn’s shoulder, pouting. "Love you too, Lou. Missed you."

"You only say that because I bring you Bri’s coffee," said Lou, taking the paperwork out of her bag and into their respective binders.

"Fair enough, but I also missed you a lot. Things aren’t the same without you here."

“I’ve been back since last week.”

“But you were gone for a month!”

“You could’ve taken your vacation time with me, but no, you didn’t want to.”

“I just like taking it whenever Eid comes around, to really kick it off,” shrugged Zayn, taking a sip of her coffee. “Also outside of the peak tourist season of wherever I choose to go, but that’s just details.”

Louis smiled. "Alright, I missed you too."

"Now, if we're done here," said Cowell, towering over their respective desks. "I'm putting you two in charge of this small case. A customer was possibly poisoned at the Happy Hour coffee shop this morning-"

"Oh, no," interrupted Louis. "But the owners are always nice about sending us drinks after bad events!"

"Lou," said Zayn. "You always complain that they’re not a Yorkshire tea and that, therefore, they're useless."

"Because I think it's a crime against humanity, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the kindness behind their actions!"

"Let's focus here, shall we?" interrupted Cowell. "St. Mungo's initially thought it might've just been a bit of an overdose from some substance they use in their drinks, but the victims are not responding to the treatments. They'll be updating us, but in the meantime drink your tea and coffee, or you'll both scare away the poor coffee shop's owners away when you interview them. And the victim’s girlfriend too. They’ve been quite cooperative and said they'll be in St. Mungo's waiting for you. And try to be competent for once, Malik, now that your normal partner’s back," added Cowell, before walking away from their desks.”

She waited for him to become busy a few desks away before turning her chair towards Zayn.

“What’s this about you being incompetent without me?” she asked, narrowing her eyes. Zayn shrugged, looking away and sipping a bit of her coffee. “It’s not the first time this has come up, Zayn. What happened while I was away that you haven’t tell me about?”

“Arnold’s a shit partner which is why no one likes working with him and you know I don’t like working alone,” said Zayn, playing with the lid above her mug.

“Zayn.”

She sighed.

“Lou, drop it. I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

Louis sighed, acknowledging that it was barely over eight in the morning and that Zayn was barely ever cooperative at this hour. She opened the first folder, looking at the slightly familiar face in the photo and showing it to Zayn.

"Niall Horan, twenty-three years old, from Ireland. Wasn't she a Hufflepuff, a few years below us? Or Ravenclaw? Don’t remember."

Zayn shrugged. "Me neither."

"Of course," sighed Louis, passing the file for Zayn and picking up the following. "Harry Styles, twenty-three years old also. Cheshire. I bet it's her that doesn't want to stock Yorkshire blends in their shop."

"Lay off it, Lou."

"No, but look at this face."

Zayn raised her eyebrows. "Oh, she's pretty!"

She sighed. "No, that's not what I want you to focus on. She looks like someone who wouldn't stock Yorkshire-"

"Oh, yeah, I see it!"

She slapped Zayn's head with the file folder, smiling.

“Be honest."

"I don't, no. I think you’re a bit off your head, though, if we’re being honest."

Louis rolled her eyes, smiling and picking up the following file.

Later, when they’d been properly caffeinated and briefed on the case, she found herself in St. Mungo's trying to avoid a pink haired girl in front of her from crying.

"And now they don't even know when he'll wake up because they don't know what's wrong with him and, oh, Merlin. Like, I know I just broke up with him and all, but I still care about him! Oh, fucking..." she said, covering her face with her hands before taking a deep breath.

Louis looked at Zayn, who rolled her eyes and mouthed the appropriate name.

"Um, love, can I call you Perrie?" The girl nodded, running a hand through her hair. "Listen, Perrie, between the healers and our team, we'll figure out the problem and I assure you he'll be well soon, yeah? But, for the moment, we need you to think about what he'd drunk or eaten in the shop."

"I, um, well, he had a cream puff, the ones with the strawberries, you know? But we shared that and I don't remember the type of tea he ordered? I'm so sorry."

"Hey, it's okay," said Louis, writing it down. "Did you have coffee?"

"No," scoffed Perrie. "I was having tea. The one with alihotsy for the nerves? I think that's the reason I'm not freaking out as much as I could be, actually."

"Ah, we get that one at the office sometimes. It's a good one," noted Zayn.

The rest of the interview passed quickly, both sides wanting to get it all over with.

Not much later, the two of them walked towards the waiting area, where they managed to identify the two owners. And, honestly. If she hadn’t seen their photos and someone told Louis to identify a coffee shop-owning couple in the room, she would've probably picked them on the first try.

They even had matching boots, for crying out loud.

Ridiculous.

One was shorter and blonde, with tight jeans and a white top that showed off her colorful bra. Niall, she remembered, as she looked at the girl bite her nails.

That left Harry, shaking her leg and holding the girl's hand. And that loose shirt-dress, or whatever it was, could most certainly be considered a liability in a food shop with those wide sleeves, what was she even thinking?

But, taking it all together, it was honestly hard to believe that they might’ve poisoned one of their customers. Intentionally poisoned one of their customers, at least.

She nudged Zayn forward, taking a deep breath to do it all over again.

"Hi, are you two Horan and Styles, by any chance?" asked Louis.

"Yeah, m'Styles," said the long-haired one, sitting straighter while the other seemed to sink on her chair.

"Alright, Harriet?"

"Um, funny story, that's actually not my name? My mum says the healers told her she was having a boy but they'd already made the family tree when they found out I was indeed a girl, so it was a bit late to change it and I stayed Harry. Plus, a name doesn't really identify gender, doesn't it? It’s ridiculous because-”

“Babe,” said her girlfriend, placing a hand on her thigh.

Harry sighed, nodding as she looked up to the two Aurors. “I tend to ramble on when I’m nervous, sorry about that."

"It's alright, don't worry about it," said Zayn, sitting down on a chair across them.

Louis situated herself on the arm of it, opening the files on their laps.

"Honestly, breathe, you two," said Zayn, doing the same beside her. "I'm Zayn. She's Lou. We're just going to fill out some boring parts first because you two don't have a record with us."

"Which is very good, don't get us wrong."

"The only thing we have on your files, actually,is under 'notes',” said Zayn, as she hid her smile behind a hand but scrunched up her nose in the way Louis knew too well. “Says you were fined by the Muggle police under, and I quote, 'public nudity.'"

She was interrupted by Niall's laugh, lighting up the hospital's waiting room. It suited her, Louis thought as she was unable to smile herself.

"Please tell me it's not a weird kink you two have," said Louis, smiling at the laughing couple beside her.

"That was a weird night," said Niall, calming down. Niall smiled, sitting up straighter and holding Harry's hand. "Listen, it's no big deal. We were in my hometown drinking, accidentally got too drunk and got lost on the way back home to London. Ended up lost in Lancaster and this one here decided she needed to pee but didn't want to be alone in the bushes or in partial nudity, so I took off my shirt while she peed. I might’ve not had a bra on? Don’t remember, but then the Muggle police came up and you can imagine the rest."

Zayn hummed. "Rather not, but at least you didn't get splinched." Louis looked at her and raised her eyebrows. "Actually, I lied when I said we needed to complete your file. Just wanted to break the tension and calm you down a little. Mind if you take us to your shop?"

The two girls nodded. 

* * *

 

Louis looked around the shop, seeing as she hadn't been in it since they’d first opened up.

It was smaller than what she remembered. Maybe it was the way the sofas were positioned in the center, leaving the windows to be set up around the artificial windows. It looked like a home, if your home was owned by your hoarding grandmother.

"It's been about a year since you've had this open, yeah?"

"Over a year, yeah," said Harry. "Niall noticed Diagon Alley needed a nice place to sit down and have a nice cuppa and some pastries. So we opened one up ourselves, I guess."

"It's a nice place," nodded Zayn. "Mind telling us what happened?"

"I, of course, like," said Harry, running a hand through her hair and starting to explain the morning’s event.

Niall looked at her, talking as if everything was alright and their whole business wasn’t on the line of closing because of their fault.

Niall looked up, meeting three pairs of eyes and being quite unsure of what was happening.

"Huh?"

"You said you think this might be a caffeine overdose?"

"Uh," she said, laughing a little. "Yeah? Me and Liam, our main girl for teas, made sure that the teas wouldn’t react negatively with each other or anything. Plus, we always indicate all our ingredients in our boards and I’m sure we don’t have any with parsley. But you can overdose on caffeine, which can be quite severe with magical folks, no one’s sure why."

She laughed again. Louis raised her eyebrows.

"Sorry, Niall's a stress-laugher," explained Harry, raising her hands.

"No, no, it's okay," said Zayn, sitting down on the chair across of Niall and sliding down it as she always did. She smiled at her, the ones that made your eyes crinkle at the corners so you knew they were genuine relieve your shoulders from the tension. "Like, we understand this must be hard for you two but we don't want to make you uncomfortable. Can you tell us about how you make your tea? Because the problem seems to be in that specific tea that caused this problem. Do you have any way of knowing which one it was?"

Niall nodded, looking at her girlfriend.

"Sure, let's move towards the countertops and towards the inventory if you guys want," said Harry, passing a hand by Niall's shoulders as she walked pass by her.

Zayn smiled at Louis, and yeah, alright, they were cute together.

"So, like, I remember very well that I'd given out a calming tea for, like, nerves to the girl?” said Harry. “Which isn't really common on mornings, but the other ones we brewed were, like, more of morning teas?  The ones that are supposed to make you feel happy and ready to head on with your day, you know.”

"But how do they do actually do that? I've never got it quite clear," asked Lou.

"Uhm, well, basically, almost all of them have the same black tea base. If not, then they’re herbal,” said Niall, leaning against the countertops. “Haz, which one did the bloke have, finally?”

“Oh, the orange morning tea! Sorry.”  

“S’alright, babe. So that one also has dried leaves from bouncing bulbs, which makes you feel more energetic, but it also has this Chinese plant? I don't know how to pronounce it, but if you ask Liam she'll tell you the proper way and explain everything better, because I honestly just trust her with the plants. But it’s to help you to focus. So, all that with the endorphins in the water, that’s all. And the orange, f’course."

“Enwhat?”

“Endorphins. Neurotransmitters for your brain,” she explained. “Makes you happy, like when after exercise and sex, but without the exercise or sex.”

Louis laughed.

“That’s excellent. I didn’t know that. I’ll come back after all this is done and over to drink those endolphins,” joked Louis, looking at her partner. Zayn just rolled her eyes, failing at hiding her smile. “Alright, but you do understand that we’re going to need to confiscate the tea and the endolphin for testing at the labs,” she continued.

The girls sighed. Harry flicked her wands towards the cabinets, showing the vials of liquid and another with the containers of tea.

"It's a special spell that Harry created," said Niall, looking up to the two Aurors. "So the cabinets only open to wands that it recognizes. The neurotransmitters, especially, can cause dependence in larger doses, so just in case, you know."

"Where did you learn to do all that?" asked Zayn with a smile on her lips.

It wasn't broader than Harry's though, as she said, "I worked at the Department of Mysteries before working here, actually. So, uhm, I know my charms and all."

"That's actually very impressive," said Louis. "And, of course, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but you gave that up to work as a barista in a shop?"

They both looked down.

"I, well, it wasn't the dream job like I expected and someone needed to help out Niall," shrugged Harry. "I like it here, though. I make coffee and tea. I used to help my house elves out with the baking whenever I was home from Hogwarts, and now I get to do it for other people? So cool.”

"Alright, so, I don’t think it’s necessary that you close the shop, since there were people drinking coffee and other teas without any problem? Just, take that off the shelves for now and let’s hope no one else will get sick," said Zayn, taking her phone out of her pocket. "Hold up, lemme contact the potions office ‘cause I’m not in the mood to go back to the offices just yet."

Niall's eyes widened.

"Muggle Liaisons managed to adapt cellphones?"

"Don't ask me how, honestly," said Louis.

"Nice," she smiled.

"Niall worked there," explained Harry. "Before the shop, I mean."

“Only for a year,” she shrugged.

Louis looked over Zayn’s shoulder to read the message.

"I'd love to sit down with a cuppa to listen to those stories, because going from the Department of Mysteries and the technology branch of Muggle Liaisons to owning a coffee shop, that's interesting," said Louis. “But we’ve got to take this to the potions lab and go see your Liam, alright?”

Minutes later, having given Liam’s address, Niall and Harry found themselves alone in the shop looking at their hands.

Niall sighed, taking a damp flannel in her hand and going through the tables.

“So you’d rather close for the day and return on Wednesday with full speed?” she said, looking back at Harry biting her lip and leaning against the countertops.

“Yeah, I guess,” she shrugged. “We already lost half of the day and I’d rather not risk anything when people come at the end of their lunch shifts.”

“Right, me too. So it’s settled then,” she said, returning to cleaning the tables. She saw the chairs of one of the tables magically turn downwards and lay above it. "I can do that without magic, if you don't mind."

She turned around to see Harry nod quietly, shoving her wand in her boot.

"In that case, I think I'll go up to Fortescue's and buy some ice cream? That'll make us feel better."

Niall bit her lip, looking at her girlfriend.

"Alright."

"The usual?"

"Yeah, s'alright."

They'd left the music on with all the rush and tension in the morning, but not even their favorite singers could help her mood. She finished propping up all the chairs when Harry returned with two ice cream cups, sitting on the countertop at the back of the shop.

Niall picked hers up and sat down beside her, positioning her feet under Harry’s thighs.

"This is all like, ten health hazards at once," muttered Harry.

"I mean, it's not like we're going to open again today, so I can't be arsed to care about it, honestly," shrugged Niall. “We’ll clean up later.”

"Fair enough."

"I was thinking of maybe going by the pub back home," she said after a silence. "Since there's not that much to do around here."

Harry looked at her.

"Babe, it's not even noon."

"S’just lunch and be back for dinner," she said with a shrug. "We're still on for that despite all this, right?"

Harry smiled a little, though it seemed forced from the way her eyes didn’t scrunch up.

"That okay?"

"Still going on for dinner? F'course."

"No, like, going out to the pub today."

Harry rolled her eyes.

"You don't have to ask me for permission. I think I'll stay inside and read instead. Since I'm a bit tired and all."

Niall raised her eyebrows, making herself smile.

Which gained her a small laugh of sorts, though it didn't soothe the tightness between her shoulderblades that she knew would remain until the end of the day. 

* * *

  

Louis squinted, the sunlight blinding her for a pair of seconds. She took a step and groaned. The day she decided to wear her nice boots, they had to end up in a muddy field of all places.

"Doni just gave me these," said Zayn beside her. "This'll take like five thousand Scourgifys to take off."

Louis flicked her wand above hers, smiling when another step left her boots without any mud.

A few steps brought them to the wooden gate, meeting a brown dog resting nearby that followed them to the small greenhouse in the middle of the field.

“Oh, hey, buddy!”

A girl slipped through the door, dressed in Muggle clothing and making a poor effort at tying her short brown hair. Louis had a hard time believing that anyone with such a warm smile could intentionally do any harm.

Huh, she was seeing a pattern today with the people she’d talked with. Maybe she needed to take one of those refreshers’ course the owls always notified her about but she always ended up ignoring.

“Thanks, buddy, for bringing these visitors at me? Do you want a treat?” she asked the dog, crouching down so their eyes easily met at the same height. “Thank you so much, boy,” she said, taking a dog treat from her jeans and giving it to the dog. She looked at them, the smile faltering just a bit as she noticed the badges on their robes.

She stood up, looking at the two Aurors as she wiped her jeans.

“I guess you already know I’m Liam, then. Is something wrong?”

“Um, there’s a client in the Happy Hour coffee shop that’s currently at St. Mungo’s? Started convulsing and all that,” said Zayn. “Wondering if you could explain why?”

“Well, if they hadn’t drank the same coffee in less than two hours, I don’t see what could be the problem. But convulsions? Don’t know.”

“Lou can you show her the report St. Mungo’s gave us?”

Liam furrowed her eyebrows as she read the piece of paper.

“He’s allergic to parsley?”

“Apparently.”

“Does it include other herbs, or just parsley?”

“We don’t know, that’s what his ex-girlfriend said,” said Louis. “It’s not like we can interview him.”

Zayn sighed, “Lou.”

“Right, so none of the teas have parsley in them,” said Liam. “However, there’s one with sea holly and some have anise? Those are the same plant family... I mean, I don’t think that’s what it is because this said he was convulsing, but alright… Why don’t you come in?”

Keeping her attention on the report, Liam turned around and opened the door to the greenhouse.

Zayn caught Louis’ attention beside her, making a familiar, exaggerated sad face towards the small building.

Oh, _honestly_.

Louis widened her eyes, knowing very well where this was all heading.

Zayn repeated the gesture once more, more exaggerated and raising her arms.

Louis kept her eyes wide, shaking her head.

“But she’s so pretty,” mouthed Zayn.

Louis sighed.

“Not now,” she grumbled, holding the door open to the greenhouse Liam had led them to, only to be jumped on by a giant black shadow.

She screamed, taking her wand out of her pocket, only to be stopped by Zayn’s laugh and the undoubtable smell of dog.

“Oh, Merlin, I’m so, so sorry. Oh, dear,” cried out Liam, surrounding the dog with her arms and trying to drag it away from Louis. “C’mon, boy.”

Zayn laughed again, giving her a hand to help her get up.

“That’s what you get.”

“Fuck off.”

“I’m so sorry,” repeated Liam, holding the dog by its chain and, goodness, it easily reached her hips. “I bring him to work sometimes because he has enough fields to run around and I don’t like him being alone in my flat for hours at a time, but-”

“It’s alright,” said Louis with a smile. “I’ve had worse attacks in me life.”

Which, of course, only seemed to aggravate the matter as Liam’s eyes widened.

“Shit, I attacked an Auror.”

“Honestly, it was your dog, not yourself,” she said. She looked at Zayn, who with all of her piercings and tattoos was soft around the eyes. Honestly, this was _not_ the time. “So, it’s no problem at all. Right, Zayn?”

“Oh, yeah. And not to blame the victim here or anything, but look at that dog and look at Lou over here. It’s not that hard to take her down.”

Louis rolled her eyes, punching her in the boob.

“Well, alright,” said Liam, “Can I let him out quickly, so he won’t interrupt anymore?”

The girls waved her off, looking at her as she did exactly that in the corner of the greenhouse.

Zayn turned to her, dropping her voice to a whisper.

“Lou, she loves dogs!”

“I am so sick and tired of your shit, Malik.”

“But, dogs!”

Lou raised her eyebrows, giving her the same look as before.

To which, of course, Zayn repeated the same expression, adding a soft sob for dramatics.

“Are you alright?” asked Liam, closing the door behind her.

Zayn coughed, leaving Louis to scratch her nose to hide her smile.

“Totally, yeah,” said Zayn. “S’just allergies.”

Louis coughed, badly concealing her laugh.

“Oh, no, not you too,” said Liam, looking between each the two girls and around the greenhouse. “And at this time of the year too, how weird.”

“I actually took my potion this morning,” said Lou. “But I’ll be alright in a while.”

“Yeah, I didn’t because I didn’t like, know we were going to be here. In this situation, I mean,” said Zayn, glaring at Louis.

Louis smiled.

“Right, so, which tea did the bloke have again?”

“The orange morning one, they said?” replied Louis, leaning against a table.

“Oh, alright, that one does have anise in it, actually. But it’s very little and I know the girls write out all the ingredients underneath the name, so if this client were to allergic to anise… Well, whatever, those are his life choices,” sighed Liam, returning the report to Louis. “Are you sure it isn’t just a caffeine overdose?”

“St. Mungo’s hasn’t said if it’s ruled it out or not?”

“Honestly, and this should be considered a proper medical diagnosis, is that he had a caffeine overdose. That’s what it looks like from what I’m reading. But I can’t know that without seeing if he’d drank a lot of coffee beforehand or something. Wizards have weird reactions to caffeine and for some reason St. Mungo’s always forgets about this? And I know this very well because the girls and me tried out _a lot_ of coffee and tea at the start and ended up there a few times. But let me show you the plants we use in that tea. They’re around here somewhere.”

Louis looked around as Liam explained the different properties of the plants, both magical and Muggle. She was always shit at Herbology, so she just nodded and hoped Zayn understood whatever she was talking about. But, honestly, there wasn’t much more to do without the results from the potions subdivision or St. Mungo’s.

She said so out loud.

“Well, I guess we should be going off, then,” said Zayn, wrapping her arm around Lou’s. “It was a pleasure meeting you.”

“Of course, yes, you’ve got better things to do than just stand around with me and my dog,” said Liam, leading them out the greenhouse.

“Honestly, that sounds a lot more attractive than doing all the paperwork we’ve got to do now,” said Zayn.

“Well, the quicker you do the paperwork, the quicker we’ll find out what’s wrong and solve this all,” she shrugged. They both stared at her. “What?”

“Let’s thank Merlin that none of our superiors in the office has your sunny attitude towards  paperwork.”

Liam shrugged, following them out of the property and opening the gate towards the apparition zone. She smiled at them as they walked out, promising to help out whenever St. Mungo’s finished their diagnosis.

“Please tell me you’re coming back during one of our lunch breaks this week and asking her out,” said Lou in a hurried whisper, grabbing her hand.

“I don’t even know if she’s single.”

“So? That’s never stopped you before!”

“She didn’t even look at me twice!”

“Because you’re always so aware of when someone’s flirting with you!”

“We don’t even know if she loves women!”

“You don’t have to love women to see your beauty!”

Zayn sighed, looking up to the skies.

“I thought you’d told me not to follow through.”

“I said not in that moment, not when we were not working!”

“Oh, honestly, Lou.”

Zayn turned on her spot, taking Louis with her as she apparated out of the fields. 

* * *

 

 Niall took her hand to her hair, messing it up to remove a bit of Floo powder, because why did this always happen to her?

She smiled at the sight of Harry in bed, book in hand.

So, of course, she flopped beside her and decided to give her as many sloppy kisses as possible.

"Niall," laughed Harry, drawing out the name and setting the book beside her. "You smell like a pub, get off!"

"Nah," she said, placing another kiss on Harry's lips before laying down on her and resting her head on her shoulder.

"Seriously, go take a shower."

"Only if you join me."

"I'd rather shower later tonight instead," muttered Harry, scrunching up her nose.

Niall rolled to her side, furrowing her eyebrows.

Harry always took a shower before going out somewhere. Something about cleansing her spirit or aura before going out, which Niall had never understood but tried to anyway.

"Are we not going for dinner tonight? We both you know you'll love the restaurant."

Harry sighed.

"It's not that. I was just reading the Prophet and I'm not sure if I want to go out anymore."

"Did something happen?" Niall was only met with a blank look. "No, I'm honestly worried. You never read the Prophet."

"I just don't think it's nice of them to have monopolized the Wizarding journalism industry, but that's not the point, Niall."

"In that case, I'm completely confused. Explain."

"What?" asked Harry, a small laugh on her lips that helped no one. "Does a job advert that you put up for a barista not ring any bells?"

Niall took a deep breath, sitting down alongside Harry.

"I didn't know that was going out today," she started.

"Is that really how you want to start explaining and apologizing?"

"Let me finish," she said with a sigh. "It doesn't mean that I'm firing you or anything. I just think that working fifty hours a week isn't that fair for you, when you could be doing other stuff with your time. If I bring in another barista, you can split off the time and you can continue to test out new spells or bake more or whatever else you want to do in your free time. That's all. It’s not as if I’m going to fire you."

"You think I'm mad at you because I think you're going to fire me?"

Niall blinked.

"Unbelievable," said Harry with a frustrated breath, standing up and leaving the room.

Niall followed her to the kitchen, where she was taking out a kettle.

"Tell me why you're mad at me then," she said, raising her hands.

"I'm mad at you because you didn't tell me you were doing this and, I don't know if you noticed, but hiring another barista would be quite a significant change in our shop and our daily lives," said Harry. She turned around and crossed her arms. "I thought we told each other things, after seven years together."

"Eight."

"Oh, right, because it’s our anniversary of all days. You should at least understand why I'm mad at you."

"It's just-" Niall sighed, messing up her hair even more. "If I'd have told you, you would've done everything in your power to stop me from doing this, and I think it's quite necessary. And it's unfair that you gave up everything in order to help me out on this project! I think you should go and work with your own projects right now."

"Niall, we've talked about this before. Yes, I gave up a pretty nice job at the Department of Mysteries to help you out with the shop. But do I regret it? No! Was it really that hard, to just casually mention one day 'Oh, hey, babe, what do you think about hiring another barista for the shop?'"

"But I have! Like, three times now and you've always said you don't think it's a good idea!"

The kettle whistled on the stovetop. Niall could sympathize.

Harry sighed.

"I was going to tell you once the advert came out-" started Niall.

"On our anniversary?"

"I didn't know it was going to be today!"

"But you still took a pretty important decision without asking for my opinion and that hurts, Niall."

Niall sighed, covering her face with her hands.

Harry also sighed, deciding to take out a mug from the cupboards and pouring out the water.

"I recognize that it was a shitty thing to do. And I'm sorry about that. I am, babe. And I know this doesn't excuse my actions or anything, but if we're going to say what we're really thinking, I think you're brilliant, Harry. You're so smart and creative even if, to this day, you still don’t recognize it. There’s a lot more that you could do instead of serving coffee and tea. I know you can do more and I feel like I'm holding you back."

Harry blinked, her hands tightening around her mug.

Niall retreated into her thoughts, trying to figure out what she'd said now and- shit.

"So you think I can do better than all this?"

She and Harry had never fought that often. Never, even when they were younger and stupid and didn’t know what they wanted in their life. But Niall would always prefer Harry’s screaming a million times over her small, dejected voice she was hearing right now.

"Babe, I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry."

"I don't- I don't want to hear this. We've talked about this before, but if that's what you've thought all along, then fine. I'm going to sleep."

"Harry, I just meant that you have so much potential and I want to see you succeed and I'm not really helping this, aren’t I?"

"Nope," she said, walking past by her and into their room.

"And it's four in the afternoon!"

"And it's been quite a shitty day, so I'd like to go to sleep and wake up tomorrow already. So take a shower, because you still smell like a fucking pub, and then do whatever you want as long as you leave me alone for the rest of the night, alright?"

Niall exhaled, taking the large shirt she wore around the house and her iPod with her. Because, honestly, warm showers and Impervious'ed music players maybe weren't the best way to deal with her problems, but at least they made her feel better.

* * *

  

Niall blinked, the combination of the morning light and soft kitchen sounds waking her up.

She sighed, throwing her feet over the enlarged couch and brushing her hair with her hands.

A simple walk towards the kitchen showed Harry working on the kitchen, only noticing her when she opened the fridge.

“Did I wake you up?”

Niall bit her lip, taking in the worried eyes she was sending her.

“Nah, I forgot to close the curtains last night.”

Harry nodded, looking around the kitchen.

“I’m making breakfast. You want to make the tea?”

She smiled. “Alright.”

Niall took the kettle and started making their tea.

“So,” said Harry, stabbing a piece of sausage once they were sat at the table. “I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t” said Niall. “Honestly, if you would’ve done something like that, I’d be mad at you too. I might’ve had good intentions, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t shitty. I just…”

She shrugged.

“But,” said Harry. “You’re right, I’m a pretty energetic person, but sometimes it does get exhausting. We do need a barista around, logically speaking. Even more when the hols come around and we should have them trained by then.”

“But it was such a shitty thing to do.”

“I’m not saying it wasn’t. Just that, well, I was also a bit annoyed by the fact that you wanted to go to the pub alone after that shitty day we’d had. Also at the fact that, alright, I was a pretty good spell developer back then. But you know how I got home every night and I absolutely hated that part of my job. And, alright, baking and serving tea may not be as prestigious as that or whatever, but I’m happy, Niall.”

She sighed, “I know. Sorry.”

“Plus, it’s been months since I’ve had any ideas?”

Niall furrowed her eyebrows, setting down her tea.

"What? Babe, why didn't you tell me anything?"

Harry shrugged. "You always think that I'm great at everything, so it's not really an objective opinion is it?"

Niall sighed. Because while, Harry was one of the best people all-around in her eyes, she understood.

“Right,” said Niall. “And I guess it’s a bit hypocritical for me to say that, because I didn’t tell you stuff either. Also, I thought you wanted to be alone?”

Harry covered her face with her hand, taking a few deep breaths before looking at Niall with an amused look.

“No. I did _not_ want to be alone. I thought _you_ wanted to be alone,” she said with a small laugh. “We’re not doing a very good job at being a power couple lately, haven’t we?”

Niall chuckled. “Literally no one calls us a power couple, Haz.”

She laughed, throwing her head back.

“Okay, but, alright. Let’s backtrack,” said Harry, placing her hands on the table. “Why’d you think I wanted to be alone?”

Niall shrugged. “I don’t know? I guess it was more when I said I was going to the pub and you weren’t coming with? I honestly just wanted for you to hug me and tell me everything would be alright. And I know how you are, too. Out of sight, out of mind. So, like seeing me would only make it worse?”

“Babe, no.” Harry sighed, reaching out to take Niall’s hand. “Okay, new rule for this next year, since it seems we might’ve forgotten. We tell each other stuff, without assuming that the other must know.”

“Deal. Like, we know each other very well, but still. Everybody makes mistakes.”

“Exactly,” said Harry, nodding with a small smile. “Everybody has those days.”

“Yes…”

“Everybody knows what-”

“Please don’t.”

“What I’m talking about.”

“My deepest regret in me whole life has been introducing you to Hannah Montana.”

Niall stood up and walked around the table, trying to hide her smile, as Harry skipped to the pre-chorus.

“But our intentions are good,” she sang out as Niall moved to straddle her. “Sometimes just misunderstood.”

Niall laughed against her neck as she tried her best to “work it” beneath her. Christ. Of all the people in the world, this was the woman she had to fall in love with.

“Hey, Niall. I’ve got an important question to ask.” She sat up straighter, narrowing her eyes. “Do you think Hannah Montana was bisexual? Because she got best of both worlds?”

“Oh my _God_.”

And if anyone ever were to ask her, these moments in which they were always laughing too much to kiss were definitely one of her favorites. 

* * *

 

Hours later, the shop’s fireplace roared and the two Aurors found the girls dancing around their coffee shop.

“Well,” started Zayn. “We’d been wondering whether you’d be busy right now or not, but we can see you’re not-”

“Is that Hannah Montana playing?”

“Yes!”

Zayn sighed, hiding a smile. Louis rolled her eyes, looking at the pair in front of them.

“We came by to inform you of how it’s all coming along, really,” she said, running a hand through her chopped hair.

“Right, so good news first or bad news instead?” asked Zayn, looking in his bag for the papers.

“Bad news.”

“Good news.”

Louis looked at the pair in front of her, giving a slight glimpse at the results paper.

“No, if we listen to the bad news first, the good news will seem better.”

“But if we listen to the good news first, the bad news won’t seem as bad.”

Louis rolled her eyes.

“Good news, your tea’s fine. Apparently the guy had been drinking this weird Peruvian coffee with too much caffeine because he was preparing for some test. So it was a caffeine overdose, after all. Bad news is that we had to witness that ex-couple fight and had to wait around for them to end because we weren’t done interviewing him.”

The pair looked at Louis.

“Now I really don’t know on which one I should focus on,” said Harry, tugging on Niall’s shirt. She slapped the hand lightly, taking it afterwards into her hand.

“Wait, so what happens now?” asked Niall.

“Well, he’s not going to press any charges so you’re all good.”

Harry and Niall hugged each other and- Okay, maybe Louis didn’t need to see that.

Louis crossed out the task of informing the girls on her to-do list, which had been hastily done to maintain the illusion that she was in fact a responsible adult. She gathered that the girls deserved some happiness and a little private celebration, as the couple they were, so she added a few more doodles in her humble collection.

Zayn cleared her throat beside her, causing the couple to split apart just slightly.

“Well, since we now know that it’s not the tea, would you guys like anything before you leave?” asked Harry.

She looked at Zayn, already knowing that she’d see a smile at the prospect of coffee. She rolled her eyes.

“I guess, yeah. This little shit’s going to hate me if I don’t give her coffee now that you’ve mentioned it, so yeah, whatever.”

The fireplace roared behind them.

“Harry! Niall! Are you busy? I’m bored and am bringing this week’s teas.”

“Liam!”  

Louis looked around to see the tea botanist pouting at them, only to sober up her expression at the sight of the Aurors.

“Is everything alright?”

“Liam!” the couple said. “The tea’s alright! It was just caffeine overdose!”

Liam looked at the Aurors, eyes wide.

“Is it okay if I hug you? I’m going to hug you.”

Next thing she knew she was being hugged by the human equivalent of a puppy and, alright, it might’ve not been as bad as Louis would later say it was.

Louis sneaked a glance towards Zayn. She’d just been hugged by a pretty girl and had been promised at least one cup of coffee. She must be living the life and it wasn’t even noon yet.

“I actually brought some new tea, if you want to test it out,” said Liam, moving away from Harry as she tried to ruffle her hair. “S’got pomegranate and mango in it. I think it’ll be good for the afternoons.”

“Eh, I think we’ll stick to tea that won’t get us into St. Mungo’s,” said Louis.

“That was one time! And it wasn’t even you!”

Louis laughed, following the other girls into the kitchenette area.

She was still laughing later, sat around a table with the other girls.

“But, seriously, what’s wrong with you? This is all tea for Southerners.”

“This one here’s Irish.”

“Beside the point. This is a serious case of discrimination. We will have to set up and investigation on why you’re doing this.”

“Alright, how about this,” said Liam, setting down her mug and raising her hands. “Come by the greenhouse one day or something and we’ll speak about what you would want in your tea. I’ll see what I can do, alright?”

“Don’t try to placate her,” said Zayn as she placed her cup on the table. “She’s just doing it to rile you girls up.”

Louis nodded, trying not to grimace as she took another sip of her tea. It was a little too light for her taste, but it wasn’t as if she was straight up rude about it, no matter what Zayn said.

“Honestly, make whatever teas you want. I’ll probably drink it even if I don’t particularly understand why people like it. Like Zayn with her coffee.”

“I like coffee,” shrugged Zayn, maybe for the millionth time since she’d known her. She gave her a fond smile, even if tired and distracted.

“She once drank like three coffees in less than an hour,” said Louis, turning towards the other girls. “Like, the big ones you send us to the offices whenever something bad happens? And I had to physically restrain her from drinking another one.”

The three other girls turned to look at Zayn, who instantly slouched down on her seat and tightened her hold on her mug.

“Three?”

“In an hour?”

“When was this? Do you remember if you felt alright afterwards?”

Zayn blinked.

“I don’t remember? Like, the normal effects of drinking a lot of coffee, so I was real jittery... But other than that? I don’t remember, so I guess I felt alright? It’s not the first time I’ve done that.”

“Zayn,” said Liam, setting her hands over hers on the table. “Please don’t do that again, alright? Like, Wizards are very sensitive to caffeine, as we all saw yesterday.”

“Oh,” said Zayn, rolling her eyes a little at the look Louis gave her.

“Plus, our coffee has neurotransmitters, so you don’t want to take too many of those in such a small period of time,” added Niall. “It might affect the balance in your brain for a while for longer than intended and I’m not exactly sure of what could happen in the long term.”

“Oh,” she repeated, her eyes widening. “So maybe that’s why I sometimes get headaches after I drink your coffees at the office.”

Liam took her hands to her face, eyes wide. “Zayn!”

“Yes, that’s definitively it,” said Niall, a little more calmly.

“I thought it was just stress,” said Zayn softly, shrugging a little.

“So, try to keep it down to two coffees per day?” asked Niall. She looked at Harry, who seemed more interested in her own mug.

“Per _day_?!”

Louis leaned back against her chair, taking a sip of her tea and looking around the table.

Harry still seemed a little too interested on her mug, but smiled as Niall’s hand covered hers. Niall argued about healthy caffeine levels as seriously as possible while still laughing at Zayn’s love declarations to coffee. Liam looked over them with fond eyes and soft giggles.

Yeah, she could see herself doing this more often.


	2. Lil' epilogue of sorts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a lil' epilogue of sorts bc i was attached to the ideas of these scenes but finished the plot too early #oops (if this were a sitcom, this would be those 30 secs of last minute jokes and plot wrap-ups, except a little longer.)

Louis shrugged off the residual Floo Powder from her shoulder, taking a deep breath. She kicked her shoes off as she walked towards her room, only to find a packed bag over her bed.

“Bri!” 

She sighed, ruffling her hair as she opened the door without knocking.

“Bri- Oh.”

She saw her best friend stir awake, instantly cursing.

“Shit. What the f- Oh, he’s still asleep,” said Brianna, sitting up and looking at Louis. “Why’re you here? Oh, shit, he’s still asleep. Oh, Lord, we were both supposed to take a  _ short _ nap and look what happened.”

Louis smiled, moving quickly towards the cot by the wall.

“S’it five already?”

“Yeah, babe,” whispered Louis, looking down at the whimpering boy in her arms. “Sorry, lil’ Frederick, we gotta wake up. It’s not New Years tonight.” 

“You know, if he has-”

“An identity crisis in the future, it’ll be my fault. I know,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, d’you happen to know why there’s a packed bag over me bed?”

“You’re staying over at Zayn’s,” said Bri, emerging from the bathroom and passing right by her. “Have a nice night out or in, whatever you two want.”

Louis followed her, frowning both at her friend’s words and the sudden pull of her hair. Oh, well, at least she got a giggle out of one of those things.

“I’m alright with just staying here tonight, though,” she said. 

“I know, but when was the last time you went out with Zayn outside of work, instead of helping me around here? Go on and have a talk with her, at least. We already talked and she should be waiting for you, but I guessed she didn’t mention it.”

“She didn’t.”

“Well, she told me she missed being with you and talking to you and all that emotional stuff I know you eat up but you pretend you don’t. It was very heartfelt,” she said, finishing tying her hair up in a ponytail. She took Freddie from her arms and gave her a look. “And I mean that last part. If I were you, I’d have a real talk with her and figure out if something’s wrong.”

And that’s how she found herself with her head against Zayn’s shoulder, watching smoke dissipate in front of her eyes.

“You know I love you, right?” said Zayn.

Louis had decided to ignore her friend’s nervous signs throughout dinner and the rest of the night, knowing very well that pushing her into speaking wouldn’t help at all. But now, she couldn’t help but to lean away and stare at her friend.

“Yeah, f’course. Love you too,” she said. She frowned as Zayn took a quick inhale from the shared joint. “Like, I love kids and all, but you’re not pregnant, aren’t you?”

Zayn spluttered and coughed, glaring at her.

“The fuck, Lou?”

“I mean, I was going to reprimand you and shit for drinking and smoking with me right now.”

“Right, because I have sex with so many men that I’ve had to make a waitlist.”

“That’s a nice method, though. Especially if you time the sessions,” she said, taking the spliff from her hands. “I, of all people, really recommend it.” 

Zayn rolled her eyes, smiling at her best friend, albeit if it turned sadder by the second.

“I think I’m quitting the force.”

It was now Louis’ turn to cough, blaming the prickling of her eyes’ on the sudden smoke. 

“What? What d’you mean? Are you sure you’re not pregnant?”

Zayn huffed out, glaring at Louis. “I’m sure I’m not pregnant. But I mean exactly what you heard me say, Lou. I want to quit and stop being an Auror?”

“Is that a question or are you sure you want to do that?”

“I don’t know?” said Zayn, moving to lean against her headboard. She ran a hand through her hair, looking away from her. “I just know that I don’t like being an Auror anymore? It’s just- At first I thought it was just because you’d taken your vacation when Freddie was born and it just sucked. I’m not used to partnering with anyone but you. It became a little better when you came back, right?”

“And I came back again two weeks ago, so maybe it’ll get better in a few weeks,” said Louis, turning around to look at her better.

“I mean, I don’t think so?” said Zayn with a sigh and a small shrug. “Because when I took my month off last year, I really didn’t want to come back. And not in the ‘oh, being on vacation is so fun and work is so tedious’ way, but in the ‘oh, I might be a bit happy for the first time since my last vacation, maybe this means something’ way. And I still feel the same? I really don’t know, Lou.”

“But, I thought that’s what you always wanted to do? Be a kickass Auror pair with me? Partners in fighting crime and all that...”

Zayn shrugged, her eyes becoming shinier. “I thought so too, but I don’t know.”

“And if you quit, then what’re you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet, Lou.”

Louis sighed, looking at her best friend. She decided to ignore the heaviness all around her body at the sight of Zayn fiddling with the bottom of her jumper.

“Alright, c’mere.” She opened her arms, welcoming Zayn into them as she leaned against the headboard. “I’m sorry. My questions aren’t helping at all, sorry. I’ll stop.”

Her fingers ran through Zayn’s hair, muttering her soft words. 

“Oh God, let’s never wine and dine and smoke again. What are these tears?” laughed Zayn, wiping away her tears. 

“S’okay.”

“I just have no fucking idea what I’m doing with my life, Lou. Just that I don’t like it and need to do something about it. And that I’m gonna need to practice my smiling through all this shit when my aunties ask me next weekend,  _ fuck. _ ” 

“That’s okay, love.”

She felt Zayn’s face hide on her neck, so she tightened her hold on her friend. If only all problems could be solved by a nice cuddle and a kiss on the forehead. 

“What about working with people?”

“I hate people, Lou.”

“I mean, but you have this… calming aura? S’why I always let you start with the interviews.”

“Calming aura, look at you.”

“Oh, shut up.”

Zayn took a deep breath.

“I think I’ll, like, keep on being an Auror in the meantime while I figure out what I really want to do,” she whispered. “‘Cause I really don’t know, Lou. I just know that I don’t enjoy it as much as I did when we started.”

“That’s okay. I’ll miss you terribly when you leave, but I guess I’ll survive.”

“You guess.”

She giggled at the feel of Zayn’s smile against her skin, right before she moved apart from her friend and reached for the quilt at their feet. 

“I guess, yes,” she said, smiling as she pulled Zayn towards her and back towards their cuddling. “Though I guess you could also quit and help out a certain someone in their greenhouse?”

“Merlin, Louis, Liam and me have been on only one date. Don’t start planning our wedding already!” laughed Zayn, scrunching up her nose and throwing her head back to look at her. “And don’t you remember me in Herbology? Everything I touch dies, Lou!” 

“Nonsense. I remember no such thing. You were the best student there,” she laughed.

Zayn laughed, hiding her face in her shoulder. She hummed a few minutes later, and Louis knew that she’d had to wait a little more from the way she fidgeted with the ends of her jumper once more.

“Well, I mean, not that I’m interested in this at all and either way it’s not like there’s any chance of it happening, but Saf did mention that there’s some rumors of McGonagall stepping down as a Defense professor,” she mumbled. 

“I can see you as a Defense professor,” she said, moving back to look at Zayn better.

“I’m not even sure if those rumors are true,” said Zayn, eyes wide as she shook her head.

“I mean, she is quite old, isn’t she? She’ll probably stay as headmistress for a while, though.”

“I’m not even sure if I’m interested in that.”

“Well, a few seconds ago you said you weren’t interested at all. You might end up completely in love with the idea the more we talk about it,” she pointed out.

“I’d have to move to the castle.”

“Not necessarily, but we both know that you loved the castle.”

“I don’t even have any teaching experience.”

“I don’t know about them up in Hogwarts, but I’d say almost five years as an Auror is good enough? And you tutored back then, so maybe you could just take some courses and call it a day,” she said, feeling the heaviness from her bones lift as Zayn smiled. She faked a pout. “Also, wow, we’re getting so old. What happened to going out and sitting on the curb because we’re too drunk to walk?”

Zayn chuckled, pointedly closing her eyes.

“M’too tired for that.”

“You’re always tired.”

“At least I didn’t find a grey hair the other day.” 

“Oi, I told you that in complete confidence!”

Because as much as she complained sometimes, she had no problem with spending her Friday nights shuffling closer to Zayn and closing her eyes as she laughed away.

* * *

In the interest of a good conversation and a cup of coffee or tea or both, the five girls had agreed to meet up every Monday evening in order to lift their spirits. And, despite a few minor disagreements on the scheduling, they always found themselves sitting around in someone’s flat, talking and laughing with each other as their friendship strengthened.

Which might’ve been Louis initial intention, not that she’d admit to it sober or outside of an emotional conversation. 

“You know, I still think it would be better on Wednesday,” said Niall, sitting down on her spot in the sofa and rolling her eyes at Louis’ glare. “C’mon, you know it’s true. It’s mine and Harry’s Monday since Tuesday’s our day off. And Wednesday's your hump day, so it would be better for everyone.”

“Please, don’t ever say hump day again.”

“What’s this about a hump day?”

“Leem, please go back to throwing heart eyes at Zayn. We don’t need your innocent self saying that foul term.”

“Lou, I’ve found that our Liam is nowhere near in-”

“I don’t want to hear it, Zayn!”

Niall looked to the side to see Harry step into the living room, the steaming paper cups floating in front of her. And, of course, she was just in time for the “who would’ve thought that gardening’s really good for-” that was interrupted by Louis’ screams and Liam’s laughter. 

Harry frowned at Niall.

“What are they even talking about?”

“I don’t know, but I was talking about doing these things on Wednesdays.”

Harry nodded as she sat down between her and Louis, with her tiny scrunch between her eyebrows that she wanted to kiss away. 

“Louis, I was wondering,” she said slowly, tilting her head a little as she observed her friend. “D’you happen to have any banshee blood in you?”

Her frown deepened as the other girls stopped to stare at her. 

“What?”

“It’s just that you’re very loud and, um, small,” she shrugged, sipping a little of her tea. Niall smiled softly as Harry glanced quickly at her after taking in Louis’ stare. “That’s not offensive, is it? Like, banshees are greatly misunderstood. There’s studies about that, I think. I haven’t actually read them, but I know there’s a few studies about that. But I reckon banshees would be quite nice if you were polite and unprejudiced towards them.”

“I think that’s offensive for the banshees, though. Comparing them with Lou,” snickered Zayn. 

That seemed to snap Louis out of her staring, quickly sitting up straighter and looking at Harry.

“I will not stand for this mistreatment, alright,” she said, eyes widening as she stared at them all. She placed a hand over her forehead dramatically, leaning back against the sofa. “This betrayal! I can drink tea whenever and wherever I want-”

“But you aren’t,” pointed out Niall.

“Because I’m choosing to do it here! You should all be grateful that I’ve welcomed you into my home!” 

“Louis, I know I always tell you to feel at home, but this flat’s actually still mine,” said Liam. She frowned at her tea as she picked it up between her hands. “Also, Haz, you know you could’ve used me mugs, right?”

“Oh, right. It was just automatic, I guess, since we’re not at the coffee shop,” she sighed. “Oh, well, what’s done’s done.”

Niall picked up her tea, staring alongside at the three girls picking up their respective paper cups. She nudged Harry with her foot, raising an eyebrow. Harry tilted her head just slightly towards Louis. Niall tried to hide her smile behind her cup as Louis pouted at her cup and turned to Liam and Zayn.

“Did any of you take my tea?” 

“I would’ve already said something,” shrugged Zayn, leaning back against the sofa.

“I’ve got mine? Don’t you?”

“No, I have coffee instead. Niall,” she said, frowning and pouting a little more. “I have coffee instead of tea. Want to change?”

“Nah, I’m good,” she smiled.

“Harryyyyyyyy…”

“Alright, alright,” said Zayn, sighing as she took the cup. “I guess I could sacrifice myself. It’s not like I mind drinking more than the advised cup per day. I still disagree with that, by the way.”

“The facts don’t care if you disagree with them, babe,” smiled Niall. 

“Haz, did you put a lot of sugar in this, though?” asked Zayn. Harry simply shrugged. “I’m not drinking it with tons of sugar like Louis does.”

“I don’t drink coffee.”

“Well, I’ve seen you drink coffee and you always put a shit ton of sugar in it.” 

“I don’t!”

“Auror training?”

“Oh, well, I did drink coffee sometimes back then, but I’ll let it be known that I hated every second of it.”

“Sure, babe.” Zayn rolled her eyes, leaning back against the sofa with the cup between her hands. “Honestly, if you two ever decide to put in different flavors in your coffee like those Muggles do, you’ll have Lou buying your coffee in no time.”

“Really?” asked Niall.

Zayn hummed in affirmation, taking the cup for her lips. She took a deep breath and glared at Harry.

“Did it work?!” 

“If I’m not supposed to drink from this, yes.”

Harry laughed, moving towards Niall to hug and kiss her. Niall laughed despite having to lean forward to stop themselves from falling backwards due the sudden movement. She’d thankfully had years of practice, though they barely ever cared if they did end up tumbling down to the floor. Niall simply laughed once more as she kissed Harry, feeling her chest swelling up from her pride. 

“Please don’t fall off my furniture,” she heard Liam say. “Also, I’m lost. What’s going on?”

“Liam, love, why’s your hand up?” asked Louis.

“I- I don’t know, actually.”

It was Zayn’s laugh that finally snapped them out of their quick snog. Niall wrapped her arms around Harry’s waist to keep her from leaving her lap, kissing her shoulder as Harry turned around to face the other girls.

“So, a few months ago we were watching the telly at Bobby’s place and they showed this fingerprint scammer-”

“Scanner.”

“That. They showed that and I thought, ‘hey, what if we could do that to our paper cups, to stop someone else from taking your drink?’ Apparently there wasn’t already a spell for that, which I thought it was weird? So I made it up. And I used paper cups because I still don’t know how to undo the spell and that wouldn’t have been nice for Liam.”

“Oh, that’s great! And thanks, Haz,” smiled Liam. “Very considerate.”

“And you thought it’d be a good idea to trick me into testing out your new spell? Very inconsiderate.”

“Yeah,” smiled Harry, sliding out of Niall’s arms and throwing herself over Louis. She laughed as she peppered kisses over her friend. Louis’ loud complaints might’ve been more efficient had they not been interrupted by several giggles of her own. “Our own cute, little personal guinea pig! Not that guinea pigs should be tested on, but who would’ve thought?!”

“Niall, control your girlfriend!”

“Nah, I don’t see why I would want to do that,” she said, finally taking a calm sip out of her warm drink.

“Niall!” laughed Louis.

“Hey, Haz, stay still for one moment?” asked Zayn, taking Louis hand into hers and closing around the cup… and effectively poured the coffee into her own cup. 

Harry groaned, stretching herself so that she laid over the three girls. 

“I hate loopholes so fucking much.”

“I’m just going to say that if any of you start judging me for my coffee habits right now, I’m going to chug this whole cup and there’s nothing you can do about it,” said Zayn, moving the cup close to her chest as Niall stood up. “I mean it, Niall.”

“I’ve given up with you. Just don’t end up in St. Mungo’s and we’re fine,” said Niall, raising her hands. “Make space for me. Move, Haz.”

“But I’m comfortable.”

Niall smiled and rolled her eyes, deciding to climb over Harry’s hips. She tried to sit down in the small space between Louis and Zayn, ignoring their complaints and the small spillage of warm coffee over her jeans. 

“Why is it that the five of us always end up all cramped together in a sofa that’s too small for us?” asked Liam, as she gave back Zayn’s coffee and started to tickle Harry’s feet. 

“S’the power of love,” said Harry, yanking her feet away and closing her eyes.

And, despite them mocking her declaration, they couldn’t help but look at each other because, oh, so that’s what it was.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this was not meant to be like a metaphor/allegory/cautionary tale about the fact that me, a coffee lover, am sometimes worried that sasha drinks too much coffee... But, hey, if the shoe fits... ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ 
> 
> Hit me up @acciowriting on tumblr #peaceout


End file.
